Remember how back in 2000, John McCain lost the South Carolina Republican Party primary to Evangelical Christian George W. Bush? Remember how John McCain became so infuriated that shortly thereafter he referred to evangelical Christians as “Agents of Intolerance”?

W’s victory in the SC primary helped propel him to the Republican nomination in 2000.

In 2008, McCain knew that Mike Huckabee would likely be the preferred candidate of South Carolina evangelical Christian voters, unless McCain could do something to split that vote.

Enter Fred Thompson, who called McCain his “good friend”, not his “competitor”.

Fred entered the race late, left early, and had no “fire in the belly” except for when he attacked Mike Huckabee. Fred was never “in it to win it”. Fred was in to help John McCain win it. Fred accomplished his mission by taking enough votes away from Huckabee to enable John McCain to win the South Carolina primary. With “mission accomplished”, Fred quit the race three days later and then told us all to “fall in line” behind McCain.

Eleven Republican Primary contenders were invited to the Values Voter Debate. Seven showed up, and four chose not to. Those four all played important roles in helping John McCain become the Republican Party’s nominee for President. (McCain himself, Thompson, Giuliani, and Romney).

Once Romney thought he couldn’t win the nomination outright, he made a key decision… rather than keep the promise he made February 5th to fight all the way to the convention, Romney quit on February 7th and did everything in his power to try to get McCain’s last competititor, Mike Huckabee, to quit. Then, on February 14th, Romney “released” his delegates to McCain in another attempt to get Mike Huckabee to quit.

The ONLY Presidental candidate who both attended the Values Voter Debate and had a serious shot at the Republican nomination, was Mike Huckabee.

He’s every bit the messianic type as is Obama .. his comments about Roman Catholicism and actions on Immigration ticked me off , but I soon after dismissed these as the insignificant ravings of a Southern-fried snake shaker.

Huckabee’s own “comments about Roman Catholicism” (which you claim “ticked you off”) were:

Huckabee said earlier on Sunday on the CBS show “Face the Nation” that he was running to be president of the entire United States, not just the Christian community.

“That’s how I served as governor,” he said. “People look at my record and they didn’t see that I put a tent out on the capital grounds and had healing services and I didn’t replace the dome with a steeple.”

And Huckabee’s campaign said:

Huckabee’s campaign insisted his visit to Hagee’s church should in no way be taken as a slight to Catholics.

“Three members of the senior leadership of the campaign are Catholic, including our national chairman. Gov. Huckabee is committed to being a leader of all Americans,” said Charmaine Yoest, one of his senior advisers.

Hagee should be ashamed of himself for falling for McCain’s “wolf in sheeps’ clothing” behavior. Hagee should have supported Huckabee, and his 1 poor decision could have made the difference in Texas and the entire Republican primary. McCain played Hagee and his followers for fools. And they foolishly trusted McCain.

Your second link, like your first, is a smear. Guilt by association again.

Look at what Huckabee himself said:

Huckabee released a statement saying he is “glad” that Rude issued an apology and clarification for his remarks. While grateful for the support, Huckabee said the comments were not authorized by, disseminated by, approved by, or condoned by the campaign.

“I consider Sam Brownback a Christian brother and know that he feels likewise toward me,” said Huckabee. “Like Senator Brownback, several key members of my staff are Roman Catholic. As believers, we don’t have time to fight each other. We need to focus on having a servant’s spirit and bringing hope to those who have given up.“

It’s outrageous that Huckabee’s commitment, in writing, would go unappreciated by you. Huckabee pledged to build the fences on both the northern and southern borders by July 1, 2010. He should be applauded, not ridiculed.

It’s not often that I disagree with Michelle Malkin, but on this post she was totally wrong.

Here’s what Huckabee said about immigration during his CPAC speech on February 9th:

Let me also say that it is right for our country, in believing in our sovereignty, to demand that we have something that every nation on earth accepts and, in fact, assumes would be a part of its nation’s essentials — a secure border. How we can ever believe that we can be a sovereign nation or a free nation without securing our borders is beyond me.

And ladies and gentlemen, our national government has miserably failed to do something that most of us all across this country realize. This is a great nation that welcomes people. We’re not hostile. We’ve always been a nation of immigrants. Most of us come from ancestors who immigrated here from somewhere. But we’re also a nation of law, and we believe that if you knock on our front door and you’re hungry, chances are we’ll ask you to sign the guest book and we’ll try to feed you and help you. But if you break through the window in the middle of the night, God help you. (Cheers, applause.)

The sad thing is when our own government puts the ladder up against the window. It’s a little hard to blame the person climbing up the ladder as much as it is the government who puts the ladder and says, “Go ahead and climb.” (Cheers, applause.) Let’s fix what’s wrong.

The “secure border” scam was a sop to the 15 million criminalians. Ironically it is the line held by Juan McAmnesty. Their plan is build a wall but keep the criminals here, defacto amnesty. Only Romney supported deporting every damned one of them, “get back in line.”

Hagee was inserting himself all over the place and in the end his associations with Huckabee and McCain were just a way to push his agenda but Huck’s praise of Hagee was effusive. That Hagee backed down from him idiotic comments is good, he knew he was wrong the whole time.

An irony to this whole Hagee thing is that the church the collaborated the most with the Nazis was the Protestant one. The Pope hid many Jews in the Vatican, in fact the head Rabbi of Rome lived there the whole time, coverted away from Judiaism and even adopted the baptismal name of the Pope, Eugenio, I think. Methinks the head Rabbi of Rome got the story straight.

Another irony is that Huckabee was used as a stalking horse to Romney when Romney was the only one close to beating McCain yet Huck stayed in through SC to the midway point.

The only Reagan Republican in the race was Romney. Romney had gotten more conservative over time as did Reagan.

It is amazingly eye-opening. And it is as relevant to the 2008 primary as it was to the elections up to 1964.

Ronald Reagan was a Goldwater Republican. Goldwater was the first “Values Voter” candidate to win the Republican nomination, but he lost the general election to LBJ (in my opinion, in large part because the country was looking for stability in the wake of the JFK assassination). Ronald Reagan was the first “Values Voter” candidate to win the Republican nomination and the general election. He was one of the best Presidents we ever had.

Many people claim to be a “Reagan Republican”. McCain claimed he is, but he’s not. You claim Romney is, but he’s not. No candidate who voluntarily chose not to attend the Values Voter Debate can call himself a “Reagan Republican”. Some of the questions asked at that debate were asked by the author of that 1964 book…Phyllis Schlafly.

It’s clear who “Values Voters” preferred. And it’s clear that the four candidates who didn’t attend the debate conspired to make McCain the nominee. Fred Thompson was McCain’s stalking horse in SC. Rudy Giuliani was McCain’s stalking horse in FL. Mitt Romney fought hard but broke his February 5th promise (to fight all the way to the convention) less than 48 hours after he made that promise. Why? Do you really believe it was because something happened during those 48 hours to make him think that the threat of terrorism was now worse and therefore he must quit? His stated reason for quitting was that if he kept going he would be letting his campaign be a part of a surrender to terror. Sorry, but that was B.S.

West Virginia was McCain’s doing, not Huckabee’s doing. McCain’s goal was to keep the delegates away from Romney, then pressure Romney to quit in return for the VP slot. McCain was successful in getting Romney to quit, and we will find out soon who McCain picked for his VP.